LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 54, Issue 257, 11 August 1934, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

There were no notifications of infectious diseases in either Ashburton Borough or Ashburton County this week.

For the sale of a plantation of eight acres at Ashburton Forks five tenders Were received by the Ashburton County Council yesterday. The tenciei of Mr s Joseph Tully ..(Christchurch) was accepted, at a special meeting of the committee.

A motor-cycle and a milk-cart.came into violent collision in Alford Foiest Road, near the Woollen Mills, about 630 o'clock this morning. The motorcyclist was reported to have been injured, but.no report had been. made to the police up till 2 o'clock this afternoon.

A Press Association telegram states that the annual collection for the combined orphanages in Chnstchurch realised £649. From other soiirces sums had been raised, so that the total from the appeal was £974, nearly £4UU less than last year, when the amount raised was £1347.

"One of The greatest of the drawbacks the Maori mission is facing is the inadequate training of Native clergy," commented Bishop Bennett speaking at a service in the St. Peter s Cathedral, Hamilton recently., ■ It is, however, our hope that this difficulty may be solved before long, and that members of the Native race may have sufficient opportunity to work among their own people with the Gospel."

The Ashburton Guild of the British Sailors' Society met yesterday afternoon, Mrs J. Russell Wells presiding over a large attendance. It was decided to hold the next meeting on the third Friday in September. Mrs R. B; Lambert gave an interesting talk on her travels in Norway, which \vias much appreciated. Mrs Ward sang two Norwegian songs and Miss M. Watt played a pianoforte solo. Afternoon tea was served and Mrs Wells thanked Mesdames Lambert and Ward and Miss Watt. '

An aerial survey of the Rakaia river-bed, between the railway bridge and the sea, was made yesterday by Flight-Lieutenant M. W. Buckley for the Public Works Department. The flight was made in good weather. The purpose of the survey, according to the District Public Works Engineer (Mr F. Langbein), is to provide''information to be used in considering whether the shortening of the bridge will have any effect on the north banK of the river. It has .been contended that if the bridge were shortened from 6000 feet to 4000 feet the river might he thrown against the north' bank, and threaten Southbridgo.

In recent weeks sheep-stealing from the Burnside saleyards (near Dunedin) has been reported, the being taken away and killed on nearby grounds. From time to time .some of the auctioneering firms have noticed a sheep or two missing from consignments on sale days, but they have been unable to detect anyone removing sheep. It is reported that while sheep were being penned on Tuesday night for last Wednesday's sale some person or persons walked" into the yards unobserved and drove two of the sheep through a side gateway. The disappearance of the sheep was discovered next morning, when the skins were picked up in a paddock a short distance from the yards. The thieves evidently killed the sheep, removed the skins, and carried away the carcases. On one occasion recently some sheep were killed in. the abattoir yards and the carcases removed.

Five members of the Baring Square Methodist Senior Young Men's Bible Class, including the leader (Mr W. C. Bishop), travelled to Oamaru to-day to represent the Ashburton classes at the annual meeting being held this weekend.

A Press Association telegram from Hokitika states that a public meeting on Thursday evening decided to hold an Old Identities' carnival during Christmas week to celebrate the seventieth anniversary of Hokitika. A strong executive was appointed. It was resolved that the first day of the Racing Club's meeting be held' on Boxing Day, and the second on the following Saturday, Thursday and Friday being devoted to carnival proceedings on an extensive seal©.

The fact that more marine insurance was being paid at the port of Wanganui for goods shipped to or from the South Island was referred to at a meeting of the' Wanganui Chamber of Commerce the other evening. It was pointed out that the rate to Wanganui from southern ports was double the rate to Napier from the south. Representations aro to be made to the Marine Underwriters' Association to have the matter rectified, siibqnf

Strong contingents of ex-machine of the South Island, from Canterbury (including Ashburton), Otago and Southland, attended their annual reunion in Timaru, Colonel L. M. Inglis, M.C., presiding. A musical item was given by Mr F. Bonham who is at present in Ashburton; and the toast of the "Mid-Canterbury Contingent," proposed by Mr J. J. Kernohan (Dunedin), was responded to by Mr E A. Cockroft (Ashburton).

Reports of the presence of white butterflies.in the Auckland Province are being received a little earlier this year than was the case last year. A few days ago a white butterfly was seen at Mount Albert, while last Sunday two were observed at Cambridge. A letter received from a resident of the Frankton Junction district recently stated that he saw and killed a white butterfly last week. By killing them as soon as they make their appearance and before they have had time to lay their eggs, gardeners will be doing something toward the prevention of crop ravages later in the season.

Canon G. F. Coleridge, the 6ft. 5m Vicar of Crowthorne, Berkshire, who was a delegate to the annual conference of the Bell-ringers of Britain, at Warwick, has been troubled about a suitable bed. All the delegates were to be.accommodatedatone hotel but it was then found that the place had not a bed long enough for the canon, who weighs 20st. After much searching a hotel was found where there was a suitable bed. Canon Coleridge said: "I must have a long bed, not only because of my 6ft sm,'but also because of an injury to a knee, which nessitates my keeping my legs at full stretch."

With band, playing and ..a guard of Royal Marines mounted on the quarterdeck, H.M.S. Diomede, commanded by Captain Cosmo Graham, returned 4*> Auckland after a six weeks' cruise to the islands of the Western Pacific. The trip was mainly uneventful, although several out-of-the-way islands were visited. Owing to the fact that the cruiser's departure from A uc kland was delayed by a defect in her port pro- : peller tail' shaft, the itinerary for the cruise had "to be curtailed to some extent. The ports visited by the IDiomede were Norfolk Island, Vila, on the New Hebrides, Hog Harbour, Funafuti, Rotumah, Suva and Nukualofa. '

"Can a Sunday municipal organ recital be classed as a concert?'' was the conundrum that Mr M. Silverstone asked his fellow-members of the Dunedin City Council t.he other evening. The council, he said, had recently passed a regulation forbidding Sunday concerts, and yet a municipal organ recital had been held on a Sunday. Had a permit been issued, or was it a case that the council could make a. resolution and then ignore it? Mr J. B ; Shacklock said it was doubtful if the recital could be classed as a concept. He did not think that any councillor, when the question of banning Sunday concerts, was discussed, thought that the decision to refuse permits had anything to do with organ recitals.

The steamer Omana, chartered by the Union Steam Ship Company from the Sydney firm of R. S. Lamb, and shortly to take up the intercolonial running, went on to the floating dock for a spring clean (says.a Press Association telegram from Wellington)'. For about three years the Omana has been lying in the harbour, latterly at the slip wharf in Evans Bay, and it was known that there would be a heavy growth of mussels and shellfish on her. Below the waterline every square inch of the surface was hidden by layer on layer of mussels, anemones, and other marine growths, to an average thickness of about nine inches. Old hands estimated that there was a good hundred tons of mussels on the boat when the dock rose.

New Zealanders grow rather accustimed to hearing about the high esteem in which they are held in Britain, but another side of the picture was shown to a reporter by a Southland resident who has returned from a visit to the Old Country. He had called on some of the principal confectionery manufacturers in Britain, and had repeatedly been asked what was wrong with the New. Zealand Government. "We have given up using New Zealand butter," these manufacturers said. "Your Government has not only imposed a high tariff against our goods, but i the raising of the exchange rate has further harmed our trade. If we are thus virtually prohibited from sending our goods to New Zealand, why should we be expected to turn the other cheek and buy New Zealand butter? You can see that in our businesses we use lots.of butter/, and you can see what brand it is—Danish."

A report on dispatching trapped opossums, received by the Wellington Acclimatisation Society from one of its rangers, stated that the present method was" to bleed the animal by cutting the throat. There was nothing inhuman in this. By bleeding, a clean pelt was secured. What was most objectionable and cruel was to bludgeon the opossum without .bleeding. He had heard of instances where the opossum was bludgeoned until apparently dead and found to be_alive hours afterwards. Only a few inexperienced trappers would do this. With reference to a. suggestion by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals regarding the use of pea rifles to dispatch trapped opossums, "it was stated that it was not desirable that pea rifles should be permitted in the forest by trappers, as this would result in the shooting of pigeons and other native birds.

About 110 unemployed men were engaged by the Ashburton County Council this week on contract wood-cutting. This work is provided out of Council funds to give assistance during the stand-down period.

Several of the newly-issued Fijian sixpences have been detected in circulation in Auckland during the last few days. They are dated 1934 and are easily mistaken for New Zealand coins, as the design of the obverse is identical. On the reverse side there is a representation of a turtle and the name Fiji.

Distinguished by the length and graceful slenderness of its wings, an albatross was flying above the foreshore opposite the New Plymouth Cenotaph last Saturday morning. Like its less fortunate relative that died after being captured at New Plymouth recently, it had apparently been driven toward the coast by the stormy weather. The bird glided and soared with the easy grace peculiar to the species. It was too high up to permit an accurate judging of its size.

Recognition between two elderly Australian passengers coming to New Zealand by the . steamer Maunganui was mutual when, they met on the vessel shortly before the departure from Sydney lasts week. They had played cricket together in Victoria fifty years ago,, and had not met since. In a matter-of-fact way one of them walked up to the other and said: "you're —•; I used to play cricket with you when we were both lads." The man accosted immediately recognised his boyhood friend. Both are now in their sixties, and they spent the voyage in pleasant?reminiscence.

A scheme for ridding Mount Egmont of goats in cue season was advanced by Mr J. C. Bell (honorary ranger), who waited upon the Egmont National Park Board a few days ago. He said he had recently been over the Pouakais and was surprised to find how low the snow was and how the ground was frozen quite a way down. Goats would not traverse country under these conditions; they would keep to country where they could easily obtain sustenance. In' summer \ the higher ravines nrovided good harbourage tor the hunted animals, as here they were practically inaccessible to man or dog. It seemed to him, said Mr Bell, that they should concentrate then- effoits on the extermination of the goats in the winter, and put on as many men as possible instead of extending opeiations over a period of three years, as had been mentioned. The matter was referred to a committee.